Home

Becoming Ginger Rogers is the story of one woman’s inspiring and uplifting journey to reclaim her life during the dispiriting days of New York City post-9/11, the unraveling of a successful business she co-founded with 12 other colleagues, and the death of her beloved husband after a long illness. Patrice Tanaka shares her very personal story of how at age 50 she started ballroom dance lessons to satisfy a lifelong dream of dancing like Ginger Rogers and, in so doing, found her way to unimaginable joy.

About Becoming Ginger Rogers

About Becoming Ginger Rogers

This book is, in part, a memoir of a Japanese-American woman born and raised in Hawaii who fulfilled her dream of “making it” in Manhattan; it’s also a voyeuristic glimpse into the world of competitive ballroom dancing; and a business book about the lessons learned from ballroom dancing that made Patrice a better partner and a smarter CEO.

If, like the author, you’ve spent the past 20-30+ years working, raising your family and caring for ill or infirmed loved ones and, in the process, neglected your own needs and desires, this book is for you. You’re likely exhausted, unexcited and uninspired by your own life and see no light at the end of the tunnel. Becoming Ginger Rogers may be that light.

In her book, Patrice talks about:• How to reclaim, re-energize and re-excite yourself about life by engaging in an activity that has nothing to do with what you do everyday• How to “reschedule yourself” back into your own life as the first step toward reclaiming your life• How lessons learned in ballroom dance such as the importance of being fully present–mind, body and spirit–have applications beyond the ballroom floor in helping you achieve greater happiness and success in your personal and professional life

• How to let go and follow someone else’s lead. This is not necessarily a second-best solution, but a strategy for winning!• How “overrated” and inhibiting perfectionism is; more important is to live your life fully, fearlessly and to hold nothing back.• How visualizing your dreams is the first step in manifesting them• How living every moment of your life in a way that is fulfilling in and of itself, and not dependent on some future you may not have, is the best way to live and to be prepared to die even if you have little advance warning like the nearly 3,000 people who perished on 9/11

About Patrice Tanaka

About Patrice Tanaka

Co-Chair, Chief Creative Officer,whatcanbe℠Ambassador, CRT/tanaka

Patrice is co-chair, chief creative officer and whatcanbe℠ ambassador for CRT/tanaka, an entity she helped co-found in September 2005. Her agency has been recognized as the “Best Agency to Work for in America,” “Most Admired Mid-Size PR Agency in the U.S.” and “#1 Most Creative PR Agency in America,” among other accolades by various PR organizations and trade media. CRT/tanaka has also won more than 300 PR and marketing awards for client campaigns.

She has been honored by many PR, marketing, business and civic organizations, including the Public Relations Society of America (“Paul M. Lund Award for Public Service”), The Holmes Group (“Creativity All-Star” Award), New York Women in Communications (“Matrix” Award), Association for Women in Communications (“Headliner” Award), Girl Scout Council of Greater New York (“Woman of Distinction” Award), Working Mother Magazine (“Mothering That Works” Award) and Asian Women in Business (“Entrepreneurial Leadership Award”), University of Hawaii (“Distinguished Alumni” Award), among others.

Patrice’s personal philosophy is that of “whatcanbe℠,” CRT/tanaka’s brand vision, cultural ethos and approach to business that involves helping the agency, its clients and the community-at-large to envision and manifest a bigger, brighter, better future.

Born and raised in Hawaii, Patrice graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1974 and following that worked as an editor at Hawaii Press Newspapers in Honolulu and later served as PR Director of the Hotel Inter-Continental Maui in Wailea. In 1979, she fulfilled a life-long, whatcanbe℠ dream of moving to New York City. Patrice joined Jessica Dee Communications, a PR agency she helped to build, which was acquired by Chiat/Day Advertising in 1987.

In 1990, she led a management buyback of a group of 11 colleagues to co-found the employee-owned PT&Co. and served as the PR agency’s CEO & Chief Creative Officer. In 2005, Patrice and her co-founders sold PT&Co. to Richmond, Va.-based Carter Ryley Thomas to form CRT/tanaka, an agency founded on the brand promise of whatcanbe℠.

A widow since 2003, Patrice lives in Manhattan. She devotes much of her free time to serving on the boards of non-profit organizations dedicated to helping women and girls, including the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, the American Friends of Phelophepa (the South African health care train) and Asian Women in Business. She also serves on the Past Presidents Council of New York Women in Communications and is a former trustee and member of the Women’s Forum New York.

Patrice is also a competitive ballroom dancer and avid tennis player. Her book entitled, Becoming Ginger Rogers…How Ballroom Dancing Made Me a Happier Woman, a Better Partner and a Smarter CEO, is being published in September 2011 by BenBella Books.